


Escape the Night: Tangled Web

by Dede42



Series: Escape the Night Season 2 [4]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Accusations, Alcohol, Books, Cards, Clues, Corpses, Novelization, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Spiders, Trauma, Victorian, webs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-11-27 17:17:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20952026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dede42/pseuds/Dede42
Summary: The Sorceress has been revealed and the YouTubers now have to go up against her lieutenant, the spider woman known as Jorogumo, in order to get the next gem. But who will die in order to get the gem?





	1. PROLOGUE: KISS OF DEATH

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> It's time to start the next episode, and if you have a fear of spiders, get ready to hide behind the couch. Onward!

**PROLOGUE: KISS OF DEATH**

*****

A cowboy entered the mansion with his gun at the ready as he wasn’t sure of what he was going to encounter, and when he was immediately greeted by two scantily dressed and very _beautiful _women, he was _completely _wrong-footed since he hadn’t expected this at all.

However, he willingly put his gun away, and they escorted him upstairs to a bedroom to have some _fun_.

*****

Once in the bedroom, the two women began giggling as they kissed him on the lips and tugged at his clothes in order to remove them.

“Hey, when can I see this gem?” he asked with a grin as they removed his coat, his shirt, and even his gun-belt, and he grunted when one of the women shoved him backwards onto the bed while the other woman removed his boots.

“Easy,” the man said, now a bit concerned since he was trying to buy his men time to find and replace the gem that was rumored to be somewhere nearby on the outside of the mansion.

One of the women climbed on top of him, rubbing her hands over his chest and arms. “We’re just getting warmed up.”

The other woman also climbed onto the bed next to them, running her fingers over his chest. “We have another friend joining us,” she informed him, and he became distracted as they both ran their hands over his chest and arms, kissing him on the face and chest.

“Do you like getting tied up?” one of the women asked as she tied one of his wrists to the headboard of the bed.

“Do you like getting tied up?” the other woman asked, tying his other wrist to the headboard, and they also tied his ankles to the base of the bed, and he didn’t complain since he was entranced by them both.

The cowboy was _so _focused on them, that he didn’t see the syringe until he felt the sting of the needle, and everything went black.

*****

When the cowboy regained consciousness, he found that he couldn’t see due to a black blindfold having been tied over his eyes, and he couldn’t move, no matter how hard he tried.

Had he been able to see, he would’ve seen that his entire body had been covered with a white weblike substance, and it was this webbing that was keeping him trapped on the bed.

“Hey!” he called out, hoping that someone would hear him and set him free. “Hello? Come on. Hello?” He could hear movement, but he couldn’t see who was coming, and if he could, he would probably freak out big time.

A shadowy figure moved behind a dressing blind, and soon a single female hand with long black nails moved into view.

“Hello?” the cowboy called out, becoming increasingly scared and he felt the bed move as someone or something climbed onto it.

Hissing softly, a woman wearing only black undergarments climbed onto the bed, and she moved so that she was on top of the cowboy, but she wasn’t a normal woman: while her black hair was done up in a fancy-looking bun, she had four sets of red eyes, black fangs coming out of either side of her mouth, and open wounds on either side of her waist and her legs.

The cowboy could feel her breathing on him, and he made a plead that he was certain wouldn’t be fulfilled. “Please don’t kill me.”

The spider-woman sat back, spreading her arms, and two set of spider legs came out of the wounds. She then threw herself forward and sank her fangs into the man’s neck, making him scream out in pain as her poison flooded his system.

The spider-woman had claimed another victim. Earlier she’d found his two men caught in her web, and she had disposed of them both, and now she was feeding on their leader. They were paying the price for trying to take the gem.

A price that _many _men had paid for with their lives, and many _more _men would pay if they were foolish enough to try and take the gem that had been entrusted to her by the Sorceress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that cowboy is a goner that's for sure. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	2. CHAPTER ONE: CAPTURED!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> As I promised, here is chapter one and it's time to see what our favorite YouTubers are going to face next. Onward!

**CHAPTER ONE: CAPTURED!**

*****

An hour ago, a group of twelve people arrived at a mansion in the Victoria era by way of special carriages, having been sent invitations that apparently came from their missing friend, Joey Graceffa, and only Dawn Hatcher felt that this was a trick and that Joey was being used.

A mere half hour after arriving, they were greeted by a man named Dorian, found a number of clues that lead to a map half and a key, and when Alison, Dorian’s daughter, tried to warn them away, two men grabbed Dawn and Liza.

When the group went to the ballroom, they found that Dorian, Alison, and the men and women in the ballroom were actually vampires, and it was there that they found Joey chained to a pole and attached to a machine that the vampires were using to drain his blood. While Alison managed to get the group to a semi-safe place to find salt, Dawn and Liza managed to help free Joey, who freed them in turn, and they found both a stake and a journal.

Joey used the stake to kill the vampire guarding the ballroom and they were soon reunited with the rest of the group, and Alison informed them, after discovering that the carriages were gone, that the mansion actually belonged to a sorceress, who was really responsible for them all being there.

Using the salt, a sunstone, and the stake, Joey was able to kill Dorian and obtain the first of nine gems that they needed to obtain a certain crown in order to stop the sorceress once and for all so that they could all return to 2017. Unfortunately, they had to vote two people into a final death challenge, and both DeStorm and Lauren went into the challenge, but only DeStorm came back with a gold goblet while Lauren ended up being vampire food after being placed under a sleep spell.

Alison revealed the gem map to the group, and shortly after Joey placed the first gem in the correct slot, thunder suddenly clashed, scaring them all, and a cloud of white smoke appeared in the doorway.

That was an hour ago.

*****

The group huddled together, unsure of what was going to come out of the smoke, which was now starting to glow purple, and soon a figure emerged from the smoke: it was the Sorceress!

“Oh God,” Joey moaned as he and Dawn clung to each other. “It’s _her_.” He was having more flashbacks of the month of hell that this woman had put him through, forcing him to invite his friends to the mansion, and that was before she handed him over to the vampires to be bait for his friends. Of course, the vampires had _fed _on him during that month.

“Did you _really _think you could escape my grasp?" the Sorceress sneered in a booming voice. "You're just the pre-show for tonight's _true _extravaganza…of _blood _and _suffering__!_” She pointed at Joey and Dawn. “Especially _you _who brought me the Darkness and _you_, Light-bearer!”

_‘_Again _about the Light that’s suppose to be inside me,’ _Dawn thought, suspecting that their friends were going to question her about that…providing that they could get away from the Sorceress first. _‘Why do the _bad guys _know about the Light and I _don’t_?!’_

The Sorceress grinned evilly at the group, truly enjoying their fear. “None of you are leaving this place _alive__!_” she declared and pointed her staff toward a set of doors, which burst open to reveal what looked to be a cross between a spider and a woman!

The creature had eight red eyes, tanned skin, sharp fangs, it had a gruesome smile, and it wore a very revealing black outfit. It hissed as it looked at the group, with a hungry look in all eight eyes, and then the spider woman charged at them.

Screaming, the group scattered to avoid the spider woman, who seemed to be chasing after the men and ignoring the women.

Alex tripped on the low table – and the spider woman grabbed him from behind! “_Help!_” he screamed as the spider woman hauled him away, struggling in her grasp. “_Help me! Help me!_” And his cries were cut off as the doors slammed shut.

“What the _hell _was _that?!_” Andrea shrieked and saw that the Sorceress had disappeared while they’d been running around.

*****

Alex was still struggling in the grip of the spider woman as she hauled him into the library and pinned him against the desk so that he was facing her, and he cringed as she pressed herself close and started to sniff him. “I – I don’t know what you have – have planned,” he stammered, keenly aware of how _close _she was to him, “or what – what you’re gonna do – do to me. But I – I can _promise _that my friends _will _come for me. And – and if you k-kill me, they’ll a-avenge me.”

The spider woman laughed, running a finger over the young man’s face, making him cringe even more. “Oh, you are funny and _sweet,_” she sneered. “Many a man have _tried _to kill me over the centuries, and they’ve all felt my _bite _instead.”

This wasn’t reassuring in the slightest, and Alex thought he was going to be sick as she kept stroking his face and chest. “If you’re gonna kill me,” he gasped, “just – just get it _over with!_” _‘Please, just end my suffering so that I can see Lauren again!’_

The spider woman laughed again and picked up a syringe from a nearby box. “Oh, you’re not going to die,” she promised him. “You see, you’re not ready…at least, you’re not ready just _yet_.” She then plunged the syringe in his neck, making him cry out, and when the sedative hit his system, he blacked out.

Smiling, she pushed the unconscious young man onto the desk, positioning him, and she stroked his sleeping face once again. “Sleep well, my dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex has been taken! What are they going to do now? You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	3. CHAPTER TWO: LIQUOR AND WEBS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> Sorry for the late update, but I had errands to run and I'm still deal with this lousy cold.
> 
> Ok, enough about real life, time for Operation: Rescue Alex to begin. Onward!

**CHAPTER TWO: LIQUOR AND WEBS**

*****

“What was _that?_” Tyler demanded, having just gotten over the shock of his best friend being grabbed by that spider woman mere seconds ago, and he turned to Dawn, who’d been trying to get the doors open without any luck by tugging on the handles and banging on the doors themselves. “And _why _did the Sorceress call _you _a Light-bearer? _What _is a Light-bearer?”

Dawn sighed and turned away from the doors to face the group. “I don’t _know,_Tyler,” she snapped, her frustration getting the better of her. “I _really _don’t know. Apparently, I have some kind of _Light _inside me that can’t be corrupted and apparently I can use it to banish darkness and evil if I can focus it properly. But I don’t even know what it _is _or how to use _it!_”

“But both the Sorceress and Dorian know about it,” Liza pointed out, recalling what Dorian had said when they were first captured by the vampires.

“Yeah, the _bad guys _know more about what I have inside me then _I do,_” Dawn complained. “So, how about we figure out _how _to rescue Alex from that _spider-woman _instead?”

Joey knew that she was wanting to focus on something they could do in order to calm herself down, and he didn’t blame her. Until they knew more about the Light, it was best to drop the subject for now. “The doors are locked, so how can we get out of here?” he wondered, and he was right since the other doors to the lounge had locked themselves, trapping them.

Tana noticed a box that hadn’t been in the room before and she picked it up. “What is this box?” she wondered and the group gathered around, and she read the short note on the top that was next to four circles with symbols on them, and four holes. “‘Break the seal and pour’. Break seal and pour what?”

“Something that fits in here,” Andrea suggested, pointing to the holes.

Joey looked around the room. “It's probably a wine glass or something," he suggested, and they noticed a bunch of wine bottles sitting on another table. “Or those wine bottles.” _‘Now I _know _those weren’t there earlier. Right?’_

“Wait,” said Andrea, getting an idea. “Try the corks!”

“The corks,” said Tyler, agreeing with the idea. “Maybe…” And he started to take the corks out of the bottles, and Joey quickly helped him.

DeStorm shook his head, positive that they would be lost with him, convinced that he was the _only _smart person in the room. Although that punch that Dawn gave to his face earlier was a surprise, especially since he hadn’t know she had it in her, even with all the movies and TV shows she was involved in. He picked up the goblet he’d gotten from the vampires earlier, and turned it over, finding that there was some sort of seal on the base.

_‘Could this be the seal we need to break?’ _he wondered, running a finger along the edge and saw that he was right. “Yeah,” he said, getting the attention of the group and they gathered around. “This is the seal.” Breaking the seal, he opened up the base and among some strips of paper was a tiny bottle filled with alcohol.

“Oh!” Liza exclaimed. “A shot!”

“Shot, shot, shot, shot!” Tana chanted, waving her hands in the air until Ernie convinced her to calm down and save it for later.

Gabbie took the bottle out of the base and she found a note, too. “Here’s a note.”

“What does it say?” Joey asked.

“‘Jorogumo liked to liquor up her boy toys with four shots before taking them to bed for the final time’,” Gabbie read, rolling her eyes when Tana remarked that sounded like herself.

“What kind of name is Jorogumo?” Artie wondered.

“It’s Japanese,” Dawn informed them. “Jorogumo is from Japanese mythology, and according to the myths, she was know to lure men into her web and consume-” she stopped and cringed. “_Oooh_, I don’t even want to _think _about it. Let’s see if we can find more of those small bottles.”

The group spread out to search for the small bottles, and Liza managed to find one fairly quickly under one of the seats. “Explorer found the second bottle already!" she crowed.

"Stop finding things!" Joey protested, but he was grinning.

"I'm an Explorer!" Liza teased him back, also grinning. "I can't help it! Okay! Two more! We need two more bottles!"

"Wait." Joey squinted at a cabinet. "Is that…" Suddenly, he bent down in front of the cabinet and snatched the third bottle from its hiding place. "I found it! I found it!"

Liza gasped and patted Joey on the back, her heart bursting with pride. "My boy!”

*****

Once the four small bottles were found, Dawn was searching around the bar and found something. “Guys,” she said, lifting up tray loaded with cups of different colored liquor and Joey hurried over to help her set it on the bar since it was heavy, and she picked up the note, reading it as the group gathered around. “‘Drink up, but chose wisely…or your first one will be your last’.”

She and Joey exchanged uneasy looks, recalling how Shane and Matt both had been poisoned last year, and they hadn’t be able to help either of them.

“I betcha there might be a symbol at the bottom of the shot," Jesse suggested. "Does that make sense?” And there was general agreement to the idea.

“I’ll do,” said Joey, surprising the group, especially Dawn.

“Um, you think that’s a good idea, Joey?” Dawn asked uneasily.

Joey nodded, wanting to prove himself to his friends, especially after what the Sorceress and the vampires had done to him. “I’ll do it.”

Andrea set the four bottles next to the tray and pointed out the coloring. “These match some of the cups.” She, Dawn, and Tana quickly matched up the bottles to the right cups, and they hoped that they were putting them in the right order. “This is it. These are our four.”

“Ok, Joey,” Tyler squeaked. “It’s your turn. Have a drink.”

Joey nodded and picked up the cup holding green liquor. _‘This better be right, or Dawn will drag me back from the afterlife and kill me herself,’ _he thought and he was about to drink when Tana stopped him.

“That means she's gonna take you away, though!" Tana pointed out, fearing that the spider-woman would come back and take Joey if he drank the shots. "She likes to liquor up her boys with four shots!”

“I’ll go,” Joey insisted. “I’ll save Alex.”

Tana shook her head and tried to take the cup from him. “No!” she protested. “Let's split it! We can _all _do it! I'll go with you!”

Joey shook his head and gently pushed her hand away, but he was touched by her offer and concern, and he didn’t blame her. “It _has _to be a boy, and I volunteer.”

“It has to be a guy," DeStorm agreed. "Let him drink it. Go on. Go for it.”

Joey nodded and drained the first cup, making a face at the taste and coughed a little so both Dawn and Tana were prompted to put a supporting hand on his shoulders, but there was no other ill effects, so it was the right one. “I feel ok,” he reassured the group and he worked his way through the three remaining shots, grimacing each time, and they all tasted worst then the first one.

Once the liquor was gone, Tyler picked up the glasses and saw that there _were _symbols on them, just like Jesse had guessed. “I've seen these symbols before,” he said, nodding to the box. “They’re on the box. They match.”

Jesse took the four shot glasses and carried them over to the box while the group followed, and Dawn was supporting Joey, who was feeling a little light-headed from the liquor. He put the glasses on their correct spots on the box, and nodded to the small bottles that Liza was carrying. “All right. So pour each of these into those.”

Liza opened each of the bottles and poured the contents into the correct holes. The box glowed purple and then it popped open, startling them.

Joey reached into the box and took out a strange-looking gem that had a symbol on it. “Where does this go?”

Liza looked at the symbol and then over at the doors that’d locked after Alex had gotten taken, and she pointed to the identical symbol. “Look! That's the same…the same symbol…”

Tyler took the gem and hurried over to the doors, where he stuck it onto the door, and yelped when the doors sprang open.

Gabbie hurried over and peered through the open doors, spotting a shape lying on a desk in the library. “There's a guy on the table!" she squeaked. "It's Alex!"

“_Alex__?_”

The group hurried into the library and they stopped short of the desk, where they found Alex lying on top, unmoving, and he was completely covered with spider webbing!

The group was stunned. Were they too late to save their friend?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex has been found, but are they too late to save him? You'll have to find out when I post the next chapter tomorrow, which will be late as I have work at the movie theater tomorrow morning. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	4. CHAPTER THREE: A.W.O.L.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> I'm here to update, despite being tired from both work and this stupid cold.
> 
> Alex has been found, but are our favorite YouTubers too late to save him? Time to find out. Onward!

**CHAPTER THREE: A.W.O.L.**

*****

As the group headed into the library, Jesse hung back, deciding that he’d had enough since he hadn’t come to this place to fight to save lives. Despite having been helpful with some of the puzzles, he hadn’t been able to save Lauren from the final death challenge, he hadn’t been able to keep Dawn and Liza from being taken by vampires before all that, and he hadn’t been able to keep Alex from being taken either.

_‘I’m done,’ _Jesse thought, turning away from the open doors, _‘I’m done. Someone _else _can be the hero in this insane story.’_

Jesse noticed that DeStorm was hanging back, probably because he was done or because he didn’t want to get into another argument with Alex if their friends did find him, and he got an idea after deciding that it was probably the latter. “Hey,” he said to his friend. “Maybe we should slide out. Let the others do their thing. I need a freakin' break."

"Yeah," DeStorm agreed. "I almost died. I'm not about to risk my life for a kid who called me a killer.” And they both exited the lounge to find some fun while the others played heroes.

*****

“Is he dead?” Tana wondered, staring at the webbed cocoon that was covering their friend. “Is Alex dead?”

Dawn stepped closer to the desk and bent, peering at the unmoving form inside the webbing. “I can’t tell for sure,” she admitted. “Maybe we should-”

Suddenly Alex jerked awake with a gasp and sat up, scaring the group, and Dawn jumped backwards, almost running into Joey. He ripped at the webbing and nearly fell off the desk, but both Dawn and Joey helped him get free of the webbing and upright.

“Easy, easy,” Dawn said and got their friend to lean against the desk. “Alex, you ok?”

Alex shook his head and winced, clapping a hand to his neck. “No…ow…my head and my neck hurt.”

“Did the spider-woman bite him?” Gabbie wondered uneasily.

“I don’t think so,” said Joey and he glanced at Dawn, who was thinking the same thing.

“Alex, can I check your neck for any injuries?” Dawn requested and he nodded, wincing again, and removed his hand. She lowered his collar and carefully touched his neck until her fingers brushed over a red mark and he hissed in pain. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, and sighed. “Good news, you didn’t get bitten, but you must’ve been injected with a sedative. That would explain both your sore neck and your headache. What do you remember?”

Alex shrugged, not wanting to make his head hurt worst. “I can’t really remember very much,” he admitted, brushing off the remaining webbing and found a key attached to his coat. “Where did _that _come from?”

Gabbie took the key off of him and examined it. “It says ‘desk’ on it.”

“What’s the last thing you _do _remember?” Joey asked, figuring that the sedative was affecting his memory, which wasn’t all that unusual.

“I remember the Sorceress showing up,” Alex recalled, his forehead furrowed in concentration, which really didn’t help with his headache. “Saying something about you being a Light-bearer, whatever that is, and then getting grabbed by the spider-woman. But the rest is a blur. What is a Light-bearer anyway?”

“I’ll explain later,” Dawn promised. “Although I really don’t know what a ‘Light-bearer’ is either.”

Andrea had questions of her own, but she forgot what they were when she realized that there were two people missing. “You guys,” she said, looking around, “where’s Jesses and DeStorm?” They all looked around, and sure enough, there was no sign of either guy.

“Oh for the love of Moby Dick!” Dawn complained. “You think they would know better then to sneak off!”

*****

Meanwhile, DeStorm and Jesse were exploring the main floor, admiring the artwork, the decorations, and when they entered the foyer, they saw that the rope that they’d used earlier to find the sunstone was missing. That was odd, but they figured that it was taken away since it wasn’t needed anymore. They were then approached by two _beautiful _women that were wearing revealing black silk outfits and black spider-web pattern shawls.

“How’s it going?” one of them purred as they sidled up next DeStorm and Jesse.

“Everything’s good,” DeStorm replied and shot Jesse a grin, which Jesse returned, but he was feeling nervous.

One of the women wrapped her arm around DeStorm’s shoulders. “It’s a _very _nice night.”

The other woman was focused on Jesse and was running her fingers along his shoulder. “Do you want to have some…” she began with a suggestive smile “…_fun _with us?”

“Sure,” Jesse agreed, pushing aside his nerves. “I could use a little fun right now.” And DeStorm agreed, eager to have some fun after all the stress they’d been under, and if that meant being kept from Alex, so much the better.

The two women escorted them up the staircase and when they were asked where they were taking them, one of the women answered. “Oh, we’re just gonna go drink a little bit.”

“Ok.”

*****

Soon, they were in some kind of harem on the second floor, and the women were pouring drinks for the two men as they reclined on some pillows. DeStorm was enjoying himself and even Jesse was starting to relax as the women joined them in having drinks.

“Cheers.”

Clinking their glasses, DeStorm took a sip of his brandy, enjoying the burning sensation that ran down his throat, and he smiled at the woman next to him. “So, what’s _your _name?”

“Kira,” she replied with a suggestive smile.

“Kira,” DeStorm repeated, liking how the name ran off his tongue.

“What’s yours?” Kira asked with a mischievous light in her dark eyes.

“I’m DeStorm.”

As they talked, Jesse questioned the woman next to him. “You’re not a spider are you?” And she shook her head, but she was smiling.

“What do _you _think?” Kira asked DeStorm.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, smiling. “But whatever it is, I like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang it, Jesse! Wandering off like that is a REALLY bad idea!
> 
> Well, I will see you all tomorrow with the next chapter after I get off work. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	5. CHAPTER FOUR: BOOKS AND DEAD BODIES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> Yes, this is a late update, but I'm updating as promised, and man has it been a long day for me with both work and this darn cold.
> 
> Ok, time to see what's going on with our favorite YouTubers. Onward!

**CHAPTER FOUR: BOOKS AND DEAD BODIES**

*****

Back in the library, the group decided to worry about DeStorm and Jesse later, and searched the desk until they found a cabinet underneath it. Taking the key from Gabbie, Joey used it to unlock the cabinet and found a letter inside, which Andrea grabbed and opened it on the desk.

“These spiders sure like riddles,” Gabbie muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Not just spiders,” Dawn corrected her. “I actually lost track the number of riddles we had to solve last year.”

Andrea spread the paper out on the desk and read the contents. “‘My brotherhood of thieves have been lured here by maidens I curse meeting. I don't know the fate of my men, but I hope their deaths were quick. They promised us a gem whose value defied all others. But-’” She looked questioningly at Joey. “What is that word?”

“Jorogumo,” he answered.

“What kind of name is that?” Alex wondered.

“A Japanese name,” Dawn answered. “And based on the myths I’ve read about her, you got off lucky, Alex.”

“I believe it.”

Andrea repeated the name to herself and resumed reading the letter. “‘Jorogumo keeps it at the center of her precious web. I have hidden our plan to steal the gem in a red book’.” She looked around at the room and her heart sank at the sight of the books, many of which were red in color. "So the gem that we need is inside of her poisonous web," she explained, "but the plan to get it is in a red book. And there's _a lot _of books in here, so everybody just grab every red book.”

“This is going to take _all night,_” Tyler complained as they began searching the books, pulling some off the shelves to flip through the pages, but they weren’t having any luck just yet.

*****

While all of that was going on, Jesse’s eyebrows shot into his hairline when Kira took out a deck of cards. “What’s going on?” he asked. “We playing poker?”

Kira nodded. “How about five-card draw?”

“Yeah,” Haruko agreed.

“And,” Kira continued, “just to make it a little more fun, losers lose a piece of clothing."

Haruko broke into a grin. "That makes _everything _better."

"One winner per round," Kira added with eager expression on her face. "Everyone else takes off something.” And both DeStorm and Jesse were already looking forward to the game.

*****

Meanwhile in the library, the group was still searching for the right red book, Tana was both counting the red books and fretting about DeStorm and Jesse, and they were all getting frustrated since none of the books had the plan they needed in order to find the gem.

Joey was checking one of the higher shelves and noticed some familiar symbols on the spine of a brown, book-like object. “Wait, guys,” he said, taking it down. “The symbols are on _this _book, but it isn't red.” And when he took it down, it was clear that it wasn’t a book either.

“It’s a box designed to look like a book,” Dawn remarked while Joey went to the desk to set it down and opened it, finding a red book inside. “Clever.”

Joey took the book out and Liza was wondering if they would need a key, but he was able to open it, much to everyone’s relief since it meant that they didn’t need to search for another darn key. “This is the plan,” he breathed, flipping through the pages until he found a pocket on one page with something inside it. He slid the object out and saw that it was some kind of decoder. “What the hell? It’s just like…a…” He didn’t know _what _is was.

Dawn took it from him and held it up to the light. “Well, with these holes, it could cover something, like a stencil, but I’m not sure either.”

“Oh!” Andrea exclaimed, figuring it out. “You put it over a book, and it tells you the certain letters!”

“Of course!” Joey took the decoder back. “Like, it'll make a paragraph into a sentence.” And he grabbed the letter from earlier.

“Put it in the top corner," Alex suggested, but when that didn’t get any results, he made other suggestions, "Is that it? No? Flip it! Is it…” But no matter what was done, there were no results.

Joey shook his head, sighing. “I feel like it's not this clue," he admitted. "I feel like it would go up to something else.”

“I hate to suggest this,” Dawn said uneasily, “but maybe we should check outside and see if there’s any clues out there.” And they all went outside.

*****

The moment the group walked outside, many of them wanted to go _straight_back inside when they found two bodies hanging from the balcony, wrapped in cocoons, and it was clear that they had been completely drained of blood. Staring at the two bodies, Alex felt sick to his stomach, and he was glad that his friends had managed to get to him with they did.

_‘A few hours longer, and this could’ve been me,’ _he thought as they cautiously approached the bodies and Liza found something.

“I found a note,” she announced and they gathered around her as she read it. “‘These two are drained of their fluids, and I am once again hungry. I always laugh at how brittle and easily broken a human is without their blood’.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Dawn muttered and she was looking a little greenish.

Alex put a supporting hand on her arm. “I’ll take her back into the library,” he offered, “and we can keep watch from there.”

Joey agreed and helped get the brunette back inside, and he couldn’t blame her, especially if they really had to get the bodies down, and rip them apart to find the next clue that they could use the decoder on. _‘And that’s the _last _thing that I want Dawn to do,’ _he thought. _‘It was bad enough when we had to retrieve those bodies from the pool last year.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, dead bodies. Yuck!
> 
> I will see you all tomorrow with the next update. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	6. CHAPTER FIVE: CARDS AND BODIES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> Sorry for this chapter going up later then normal, but my day turned out to be busier then I first it would be since I went on a trip with my family, and then I had a shift with my client. Topped with this darn cold, I'm more exhausted then ever.
> 
> Ok, enough real life, let's see what our favorite YouTubers are up to with those dead bodies. Onward!

**CHAPTER FIVE: CARDS AND BODIES**

*****

Back inside the library, Alex got Dawn to sit down on a chair while Joey went back outside to help their friends. He retrieved a glass of water from the lounge and gave to her while sitting down in a chair next to her. “Here, this should help.”

“Thanks,” Dawn said gratefully, sipping a little of the water. “I normally don’t get queasy like that but…” She shuddered a little.

“I don’t blame you in the slightest,” Alex assured her. “Knowing that could’ve been me if you guys hadn’t found me in time.” He shook his head. “So, what is this ‘Light-bearer ‘business anyway?”

Dawn chuckled and he grinned. “I really wish I knew, Alex,” she admitted, sipping the water again. “Last year, some cat-like woman told Tim and Matt that I have some kind of Light inside me, which apparently can’t be corrupted and can be used to dispel darkness and evil, and I don’t even know what it is or how to use it.”

“Shame, it could probably help us get out of here if you could,” Alex remarked and she nodded wistfully. “So, what did you guys have to do to get the doors open after I got grabbed by the creepy spider-woman?” And she groaned good-naturally before sharing with him about searching for the small bottles and Joey drinking the four shots, and soon they were both laughing and feeling _much _better.

*****

While all of this was gong on, DeStorm and Jesse were enjoying their time with Kira and Haruko with plenty of drinks and poker.

“Let me deal them up,” Jesse insisted, taking the deck of cards and he began shuffling them fast. “I’m fast.”

“Do you got any tricks?” Haruko wanted to know.

Jesse winked at her. “I do.”

Kira held up a bottle of wine. “Anybody need some more to drink?”

DeStorm held out his glass and let her fill it with red wine and he winked at Jesse. “She trying to get us tipsy," he joked, enjoying himself.

Jesse shuffled the cards with a grin on his face. "She's trying to get us _turnt!_”

"Oh," Kira said as she served Jesse another shot, "our friends like to…uh…play _hard_."

"So who are your friends?" Jesse inquired as he dealt out the cards.

Kira gulped a large amount of alcohol straight from the bottle before she answered. "Alison! She used to play with us.”

_‘Well, if they’re friends with Alison, then we’re in good company,’ _Jesse thought, drinking some of his wine as they looked over their cards.

“All right,” said Kira, after looking at her cards. “Well,_I_don't have anything, so I guess I'm taking off another piece of clothing." She stood up, and DeStorm grinned. "I'll go with my shoe."

"This is what I came for," DeStorm sighed, leaning back against his cushion. "This is the _life_.” And he enjoyed the show that the women put on as they removed a shoe and a sock each.

“I've never played strip poker before," Jesse confessed, also enjoying the strip tease. "I'm excited." The girls beamed at him, and he laughed.

Kira turned her attention back to DeStorm. "What do you think about _that?_” she asked, straddling him.

"Oh, I'm thinking _everything _about that," DeStorm confessed and sighed as she wrapped her silk sock around his neck. “I'm _never _going home.”

*****

Outside, the group was still searching for the item that the decoder could go to, and they weren’t having too much luck…yet.

“I bet you it's the same size as what this is," Joey remarked, holding up the decoder. "So, guys, look for something this size. And look for something that's not obvious. It might not even be a book. It might be something…”

Andrea nodded. “It could be _literally _right in front of you.”

“Guys,” Artie said with a resigned expression, looking at the two cocooned bodies. “I hate to say it, but I _think _we’re gonna have two take these down and rip them apart.”

“Bro, you’re joking, right?” Ernie asked uneasily.

“I wish I was.”

And with _great _reluctance, Artie, Ernie, Tyler, and Joey yanked the two bodies down, much to the disgust of the girls, who reluctantly joined them in ripping apart the cocoons, and they all made faces when they found two _actual _dead bodies inside. Both were male and – thankfully – neither of them were Jesse or DeStorm.

“Ugh,” Joey groaned as he and Tyler hauled one of the bodies onto nearby table. “I _can’t _believe we’re going to do this.” _‘And I thought retrieving dead bodies from the swimming pool or even finding body parts in the green house last year was gross.’_

Dawn poked her head out the door with Alex, wondering what all the racket was all about. “What’re you guys doing out there?” she asked.

“We have to search the dead bodies,” Joey informed them. “And I rather you two not have to take part. Good news, neither of these bodies belong to Jesse or DeStorm.”

Alex and Dawn both made faces. “Good point.” And they retreated back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ew! I really wouldn't want to tear apart dead bodies. Yuck!
> 
> I'll see you guys on Monday for the next chapter. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	7. CHAPTER SIX: RIPPING UP BODIES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> I'm back, I'm still fighting this darn cold, but I am feeling somewhat better, and it's time to see what is going on with our favorite YouTubers and the dead bodies. Onward!

**CHAPTER SIX: RIPPING UP BODIES**

*****

Inside the library, both Alex and Dawn decided to check the room for any other clues they might’ve missed the first time around. And because of this search, they found a chest that hadn’t been in the room before.

“Where did this come from?” Alex wondered as they examined it, trying to figure out how to open it.

“After last year, I’ve given up trying to figure that out,” Dawn confessed. “These things just _appear _when we least expect them.” She sighed and straightened up. “I think we’re gonna have to wait for the others to find whatever that decoder goes to before we can get this open.” And Alex agreed.

“Looks like it.”

*****

Meanwhile, the group was _literally _ripping the bodies apart, despite the impulse to throw up, and they dug through the innards of the bodies, searching for _anything _that could help them.

“There it is!” Gabbie exclaimed, prying a wooden square out of the chest cavity of the body that she’d been helping Joey and Tyler search. As the group gathered around, Tyler decided that he had enough and slipped inside the library to join Alex and Dawn.

*****

“Tyler, what’re you doing in here?” Alex asked, surprised to see him.

“Had to get away from the bodies,” Tyler answered, shakily wiping his hands on a cloth that he tossed into a nearby trash bin. “But Gabbie found something useful.”

“That’s good.”

*****

Gabbie cleaned off the square and found an inscription on it, which she read. “‘The samurai warrior drove his katana through the neck of the beast, then made the world sink underneath it’.” She frowned since that didn’t make a lick of sense.

“We need to translate it,” said Liza and pointed to the decoder that Joey was holding. “Put the card on top of it.”

Joey handed the decoder to Gabbie, who placed it on the square and she read the inscription again. “‘Set on the sun’.”

Andrea looked around and spotted a gold sun that was carved into the table. “The sun,” she said, pointing to it. “There’s a sun. Right here.”

Joey realized that someone was missing. “Guys, where’s Tyler?”

Before the others could panic, Dawn called out from the library. “He’s in here with us, and we found some kind of chest.”

Relieved that Tyler hadn’t been taken or run off, Andrea nodded to Gabbie. “Put it on the sun.” And Gabbie did so.

*****

Inside the library, the chest popped open, scaring Dawn, Alex, and Tyler. “Freakin’ jump scares!”

“Guys, this chest has open!” Tyler called out and their friends ran back inside.

Liza peeked inside the chest and found both a lantern and a note. She took them both out and the lantern lit up, glowing purple. “‘This light reveals invisible things’,” she read. “‘Search the walls’.”

“Hold it up against the wall,” Joey advised her.

Liza nodded and went around the room, holding the lantern up to the walls, searching for some kind of hidden message that could help them find Jesse and DeStorm, and she was in full explorer mode. So far, there was nothing, but when Andrea suggested checking the chalkboard, she turned to the chalkboard, and sure enough, words appeared that’d been painted in invisible paint.

They read the words together. “‘Jorogumo kills all’.” And they all exchanged uneasy looks.

Liza kept the lantern on the chalkboard, checking to see if there was anything else on it, and in the lower right corner, she found some odd symbols. “There’s symbols! There’s symbols on the bottom!”

Dawn moved closer and examined the symbols. “These are kanji symbols,” she informed them. “They’re Japanese and it looks like these symbols go to something.”

“How’d you know that they’re Japanese?” Gabbie questioned.

“My dad served on one of the missions in Japan,” Dawn explained, “and he thought it’d be good if we learned how to speak and read some of the language.” She then grabbed a paper and pencil off the desk, and she wrote down the symbols. “There, that should do it.”

That made sense to Gabbie. “We have to find the symbols.” And the group began searching the room.

Tana wandered around and she found a door, which she opened. “Guys, guys, guys,” she called out and Alex went into the room on the other side of the door.

Alex looked around and found a box with the symbols on it. “Oh! The symbols! One of the symbols! Here! We got a box!” And he carried it back out, setting it on the desk. “It has a combination lock with those uh, kanji symbols on it.”

“Ok, I’ll read off the symbols,” Dawn said and she translated each kanji symbol. “Power, lizard, person, and surface.”

Alex worked the combination lock and it opened. “Got it!”

Gabbie reached into the box and pulled out two red gems. “Stones!” she exclaimed, hoping that this was the one they needed.

“Fake stones, though," Liza pointed out.

"Yeah," Joey agreed. "Those are fake."

"These aren't real stones.”

Alex saw that there was a note in the shape of a crane in the box and he took it out, unfolding and reading it. “‘They're almost perfect fakes. I made two, in case one of my men perished. Our plan was to swap the gem when Jorogumo was unaware…but we never made it that far into her web’.”

“So we need to swap those out with the real one when we get there," Andrea guessed.

"Wait." Gabbie's throat went dry with panic. "We have to go to her _web?_”

Alex nodded. "We gotta Indiana Jones this thing.”

“‘Spiders, why did it have to be spiders’?” Dawn wondered and this got some snickering from the group as she deliberately replaced snakes with spiders.

“Ok,” Liza said, setting down the lantern since they didn’t need it anymore. “So we need to go find the web and get our friends back!"

"Yeah, so let's go!" Tana shouted. "We gotta go!” And they all hurried out of the library.

*****

Unaware of what was going on with their friends, Jesse was having the time of his life, but he was also feeling like he was making a serious mistake at the same time. He was surprised when Kira and Haurko retrieved a pair of books and brought them over. _‘Books? We’re going to read books? _Seriously_?’_

“We have a little…_reading _session.”

“Aw, come on!” DeStorm scoffed. “We didn't come to _read! _Go back to school!" But his protests trailed off into an awestruck "oh, okay" as Haruko and Kira revealed a pair of black blindfolds hidden inside the books.

Kira licked her lips. "We're making things a little more exciting…and _dirty_…"

Jesse shook his head, feeling uneasy as Haruko moved behind him with one of the blindfolds. “_What _is happening?”

DeStorm, however, seemed fine with this. "Oh, okay!" he sighed as Kira blindfolded him. "You do your thing, girl! I like the kinky stuff. My ex-girlfriend, she was just very lazy when it came to the kinky stuff."

Haruko tied her blindfold around Jesse's eyes. "Oh, crap," he groaned. "I can't see nothing."

DeStorm was still talking abut his ex. "She didn't wanna do _nothing._”

"I'm kinda nervous," Jesse confessed. "I just feel really bad about this.” And no sooner were the words out of his mouth, then both women plunged syringes into their necks, injecting them with a sedative.

DeStorm immediately slumped sideways onto the pillows while Jesse grasped at his neck before blacking out as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, things are NOT looking good for Jesse and DeStorm, and I'm dreading of what is going to happen next to the group now that the fake gems have been found.
> 
> I will see you all tomorrow with the next chapter. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	8. CHAPTER SEVEN: FIRST EVER GENDER VOTE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> The fake gems have been found and it's time for our favorite YouTubers to figure out where Jesse and DeStorm are. Onward!

**CHAPTER SEVEN: FIRST EVER GENDER VOTE**

*****

The group hurried into the foyer and Alex saw that the front door was open, pointing it out right before it was suddenly slammed shut.

“Who goes there?” Alison demanded and she was out the door before they could stop her, and the group hurried after her.

*****

The group arrived outside, just as four shadowy figures came into view, and they realized that one of the figures was Jesse when they heard him cry out. “Don’t cut me! Don’t cut me!”

Kira and Haurko dragged Jesse and DeStorm into view, with sharp-looking knives pressed to their necks, and while Jesse was pleading for help, DeStorm was looking heartbroken instead. Neither of them had been thrilled to regain consciousness and find the women forcing them outside with the knives. Plus, Jesse had discovered that they’d taken his gun, too.

“Get back!” Alison snapped at the two women, baring her fangs at them.

Just then, Jorogumo herself descended from the sky on a string of spider silk. One look at her – eight eyes, bared teeth, long arms and legs going every which way – and the group huddled behind Alison, terrified at the sight. Shelanded on the ground and pulled herself into an upright position, her ugly mouth twisted into a sadistic smile as the spider legs retreated back into the wounds.

"They're _mine _now!" she sneered, eyeing Jesse and DeStorm as if they were two delicious pieces of steak. "Men are meals to be taken at _will_, and _these _two will taste…_nice._” She then looked back at the group. “However,” she continued, “I like to watch my prey struggle. I will exchange these two males for _one _female life. Select two women by vote who will try to escape my web! _Go!_”

The group reluctantly retreated back into the house while promising Jesse and DeStorm that they would come back for them.

*****

The group was in turmoil as they reached the lounge, and both Joey and Dawn were shocked since this was the _first time _they would be taking partin a gender-specific vote.

“Well, someone's dying,” Liza stated, sitting on the arm of the couch next to Dawn and Joey. “And it's a girl."

"One girl goes," Tana added, "and the two guys are safe.”

“Listen,” Andrea said, standing up. “I have an idea. What if we put the weakest girl and the strongest girl in? That way, we _know_we're gonna come back with the strongest girl, and we get rid of the weakest link."

"Who is the weakest link?" Tyler asked.

"Well, we'll all decide who is," Andrea replied. "I mean, if you think it's me, then put me in, but I think I'm not the weakest link!”

Liza shook her head. “I think the two weakest should battle it out,” she suggested. “I mean, one of them has to end up winning, and then we get rid of-"

"How about you guys leave your cases to us?" Joey interrupted with a smug smile, and he put his arm around an equally smug Tyler. "The gentlemen are safe.”

“Oh _sure, _Joey, rub it in,” Dawn said with an exasperated expression on her face and rolled her eyes when he smirked at her. “Shut up.”

Alex, however, thought it was a good idea and stood up to move to the other couch. “Guys over here," he said, moving to the couch where Joey and Tyler were sitting. "Girls over here." He pointed to Gabbie and Tana's couch. "I wanna see…”

Rolling their eyes, Andrea, Dawn, and Liza moved to the other couch to sit next to Gabbie and Tana while Artie and Ernie joined Tyler, Joey, and Alex. And they began discussing why each of the girls shouldn’t go into the challenge, which did lead to a heated debate between Gabbie and Andrea, and just when it looked like they were going to get into an actual fight, Liza stood up, pulling Dawn with her.

“Dawn and I found _so _much!” she stated and the brunette nodded. “Joey wouldn't be sitting here on this couch if it wasn't for us!"

“Liza’s right,” Dawn agreed. “We helped free Joey back in the ballroom, where the three of us found both the journal and the stake.” They both then tossed affectionate smiles at the Savant. "Love you, Joey."

Joey smiled back at them. "Thank you, Liza, Donny.”

“I shouldn't go in," Gabbie insisted, "because I contributed a lot too, and I think that I am a strong addition to this team.”

Tana took her turn once the other girls were done, and this was her only chance to convince them _not_ to vote for her, although she found it slightly annoying when Liza and Dawn sat on the arm of the couch with the guys so that they were next to Alex and Joey.

“I've been trying to make bold moves that I think other people might be scared to make," she explained in a nervous voice. "Like, I veered off from the group in that room, all by myself, found that door, walked in there, found that little box…" Her hands were shaking as she begged for her life. "I didn't wanna open that door and be the next person to be taken away!"

"If you're not afraid to make bold moves to save other people," Tyler pointed out, "then why not go out there and save those people?”

Before Tana could say anything else, Alison spoke up from the bar, where she had the cards with the girls’ images on them already set up. “It’s time to vote.”

Exchanging nervous looks, they each took their turn at decided which of the girls were going to go into the final death challenge to save Jesse and DeStorm. Gabbie was a bit annoyed that she was the last one to take her turn to vote, which she did, and she sat back down next to Joey on one of the couches.

Alison gathered up the chosen cards and began shuffling them. As the group watched, Dawn was gripping Joey’s hand, and he was giving it a reassuring squeeze in return. When he had gone up to vote, he’d refused to choose any of Dawn’s cards, just like he refused to vote for her last year, too. He wasn’t about send her into a final death challenge if he could avoid it.

Alison shuffled the cards several times and then she chose one. She looked at it, and then she revealed the card to the group. “Gabbie.”

“Dammit,” Gabbie muttered and Joey rubbed her shoulder in a supportive manner.

Alison shuffled the cards again and chose a second card, which she showed to the group. “Tana.”

“Oh crap,” said Andrea.

Dawn let out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding, and while she hated that their friends were going into a final death challenge involving a spider-woman, she was relieved that she hadn’t been voted for.

“Gabbie, Tana,” said Alison, nodding to the two girls. “It’s time to go.”

As the two girls stood up, Tyler handed them the small black bags that the fake gems had been placed in. “Bring the gems, each of you.”

Nodding, Gabbie and Tana took the bags and headed outside with Alison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first time that there was ever a gender-specific vote on the show, and it wouldn't be the last either. Ok, I will see you all tomorrow to see how Gabbie and Tana do in the final death challenge. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	9. CHAPTER EIGHT: WEB-SLINGING ANYONE?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> It's time to see who will win the final death challenge to save Jesse and DeStorm. Will it be Gabbie? Will it be Tana? Onward!

**CHAPTER EIGHT: WEB-SLINGING ANYONE?**

*****

On the second floor of the mansion, DeStorm and Jesse were tied to a pair of pillars thanks to some of Jorogumo’s webbing, and DeStorm was rambling about how dumb it had been for them to wander off, and to get drunk with a pair of strange girls.

“For the love of God, _shut up!_” Jesse shouted, fed up with his friend. “We both screwed up ok? I get it, so _please _shut your mouth for five seconds will you, DeStorm?” And when his friend glared at him, but said nothing, he was grateful for the silence…at least until Jorogumo entered the room. Now he was wising that DeStorm would start talking again, if only to drown out the hissing sound she was making as she approached them.

“Two of your friends are on their way to compete for your lives,” the spider-woman informed them, running her claws along their faces, making them both cringe. “Soon, they will race through my web to decide which of _you _will be saved.”

Both DeStorm and Jesse were confused. “What’re you talking about? You said-”

“I _never _harm women,” Jorogumo informed them. “Your friend, who is the Light-bearer, could’ve told you that if either of you had paid attention to her. I only _feed _on men, for they are easier to trick then women.”

“So, what will happen when the girls get here?” DeStorm asked, getting an uneasy feeling in his stomach, and Jesse was getting the same uneasy feeling, too.

“Whoever wins my little game," Jorogumo explained, "will get to choose a man to save from me. If you are chosen, you will be free to return to your friends alive, but if not…” She didn’t finish the sentence and didn’t need to either.

_‘We are _so _screwed,’ _Jesse thought, fearing for not only the well-being of himself and DeStorm, but also how this was going to affect their friends when they learned the truth. _‘Dawn and Joey are going to take this _really _hard. I never should’ve wandered off like that. Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ _If he made this out alive, then he was going to make sure that he didn’t make anymore mistakes like that _ever _again…providing that he did survive.

*****

Alison lead Gabbie, who was doing her best to remain calm, and Tana, who was also trying to remain calm, down a winding path until they reached the side of the mansion, and there was webbing _everywhere_.

Gabbie and Tana exchanged nervous looks as they read a note that was waiting for them on a table. “‘To escape my web, you must each overcome three obstacles. Charge into the web until you each find a golden box. Inside will be your next instruction. Do not dally. I am hungry’.”

“Go!” Alison shouted.

Both girls ran forward, shoving through the sticky webbing that was clinging to them, and they both managed to reach a pair of gold boxes at the same time. They opened the boxes, finding identical notes and a key each.

“‘I would never kill another woman. It is one of my men who is going to die. They were simply bait to lure you in for my entertainment’.”

“Seriously?!” Tana shrieked and Gabbie was looking equally outraged. Jorogumo had _lied _to them!

Vowing to make the spider-woman pay when this was over, they both resumed reading the rest of the note. “‘This key opens a chest with my eggs. Inside is a black pearl you will need to pass my hand-maidens and take the final climb’.”

Tossing aside the notes, they grabbed the keys, and ran forward to solve the next part of the challenge while cursing the spider-woman for putting them through this.

*****

Tana and Gabbie reached the chests at the same time and while Gabbie was quick to unlock her chest, Tana struggled a bit until she finally got it open. By this point, Gabbie was digging through the silky depths to find the egg that contained the black pearl.

Both girls tore and squeezed apart the eggs, trying to find the black pearl while finding a number of gold pearls, and then Gabbie managed to find her black pearl first.

Gabbie then ran across the field, avoiding the various obstacles in her path until she handed the pearl to one of the waiting handmaidens. Once this was done, she dashed up the nearby flight of stairs to finish the final leg of the challenge. “I’m _not _in good shape!”

Tana ignored her complaints, finding the black pearl _finally_, and she ran to the other handmaiden, who accepted the pearl, and she dashed up the stairs, determined to finish the challenge and save Jesse. She didn’t care about DeStorm, who’d was being the biggest jerk on the planet, but she _did _care about Jesse. _‘Hang on, Jesse! I’m coming!’_

*****

Gabbie reached a spider web made entirely out of rope and she began to climb it. It wasn’t easy going with both her dress and her heels, but she was determined to win, and she was already halfway up when Tana reached the web and began climbing after her.

*****

Gabbie refused to look down, instead she was focused on the balcony that was nearly in reach, and after taking a moment to take a deep breath, she pulled herself upward until she could climb over the stone railing and onto the balcony itself. There she found a stand with the real gem nestled on top, and she went to work on switching it out with the fake gem.

*****

Tana was halfway to the top when she saw Gabbie make the switch through the bars, hiding the real gem in her dress, and her heart sank. Oh she knew that she and Gabbie would live, but it was now down to Gabbie to choose between Jesse and DeStorm, who she could see being shoved outside by Jorogumo.

_‘Please save Jesse,’ _she thought, silently praying. _‘_Please _save Jesse! If not for me, then for Dawn and Joey at least!’_

*****

Jorogumo brought Jesse and DeStorm out of the mansion and presented them to Gabbie, who realized that she was going to have to choose between them. “Who will you save?” she demanded from her position behind the two men, who were shaking in their boots, gripping the back of their shirts in her fists. “Choose!”

Gabbie looked between them, her eyes wide since she hadn’t thought of who she was going to save when she finished the challenge. She looked between Jesse, who was pointing to himself and mouthing “pick me” at her with a frantic expression, and DeStorm, who just shrugged at her. _‘If Tana was in my position, she would probably go for Jesse,’ _she thought. _‘Jesse _is _a good friend of Dawn and Joey, who would probably want to save him too if they were here. And yet…’_

“DeStorm!” Gabbie shouted and Jesse’s shoulders slumped in defeat. _‘Sorry, babe.’_

“Take your toy," Jorogumo snarled, pushing a very surprised DeStorm at Gabbie. "Go!” And they both fled.

_‘Great, I can survive a tour of duty in Iraq, and I can win the first season of _Fight of the Living Dead_, but now I’m going to be _spider food _instead.’ _Jesse stared after them longingly, but he knew that he was screwed and he reluctantly faced Jorogumo when she made him turn around. _‘Dawn, Joey, I’m _so _sorry for wandering off, and for you both having to go through this hell _again_.’ _“Are you kidding me?” he grumbled, wishing that he’d been saved. “What?”

“_Kneel_.”

Rolling his eyes, Jesse knelt before the spider-woman, wishing that he could say something that would keep her from killing him, but he knew that there was no point. “Is this gonna hurt?” he asked as she raised her arms, the spider legs coming out of their hiding places. “Is this gonna hurt?” And when she sank her fangs into his neck, he screamed as her poison coursed through his body until his heart finally stopped.

*****

Tana was still on the rope web and she felt her heart break as she listened to Jesse’s screams until they stopped. _‘Oh, Jesse,’ _she thought, crying bitterly. _‘I am _so _sorry!’ _She didn’t resist when the two handmaids walk up and pulled her off the web, escorting her back toward the lounge.

“Don’t cry,” one of them purred into her ear as they walked. “You're too beautiful to cry. Besides, men like that are not worth crying over.”

“_No man _is worth crying over,” the other woman added in a silky voice.

Tana didn’t say a word to either of them, she was in too much emotional pain to even listen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang it, Gabbie! Why couldn't you have chosen Jesse instead of DeStorm?!
> 
> Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of DeStorm during this season and I wasn't a happy camper with Gabbie either for abandoning Jesse like that.
> 
> Although I do have work tomorrow at the movie theater, I will be posting the next chapter to see how the group will react when they learn that Jesse is dead. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	10. CHAPTER NINE: EVIL LAUGHTER

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night!
> 
> Poor Jesse is dead and it's time to see how the group is going to react when they see who returns from the final death challenge. Onward!

**CHAPTER NINE: EVIL LAUGHTER**

*****

Gabbie and DeStorm walked together back toward the lounge with Alison leading the way, after assuring them that Tana would be back at the lounge when they got there, and DeStorm pointed out that it was very likely that the others were going to hate her for choosing him over Jesse, especially Dawn and Joey.

Gabbie shrugged and hooked her arm with his. “So?” she asked. “_They _put me in the final death challenge, and so this is on them, _not _me.”

“A girl after my own heart,” DeStorm complimented and they promised to be allies from that point on.

*****

When Tana was escorted into the lounge by the two handmaidens, the group gasped and when she was questioned about where DeStorm and Jesse were, she couldn’t answer around the lump in her throat, and it was then that Gabbie arrived, arm-in-arm, with DeStorm, and the room erupted in confusion.

“What?"

"Wait!"

“_Jesse's _gone?"

"They're _both _back?"

"What the hell?"

"What happened?"

"Why are you both back?"

"What's going on?"

"Gabbie and I had to compete to save one of the guys," Tana finally explained, her voice a quiet whisper of regret, "and I lost."

"Are you _kidding _me?"

"Wait, _what?_”

Tana nodded sadly. "The spiders didn't want us girls. They wanted one of the guys. It was a trick. They were tricking us.”

Both Joey and Dawn felt like they’d been punched in the stomach. Not only had Jorogumo _lied _to them, proving that she was just like the spider-woman from the Japanese myths, but it was like they were playing a game where the person in charge kept changing the rules on them, and to lose Jesse, a guy who survived a tour of duty in Iraq, plus won the first season of _Fight of the Living Dead, _this was more painful then most.

_‘I should’ve gone into that challenge,’ _Dawn thought angrily._‘If _I _had gone, Jesse would still be alive.’_

DeStorm smirked at the group, especially at Alex, and it was clear that cheating death a second time had _seriously _inflated his ego. “You bitches can't kill me."

"Me neither," Gabbie added with a grin.

"We didn't even _wanna _kill you!" Joey snapped, angry and hurt that Jesse was dead and that these two were acting like mean girls. "What are you guys _talking _about?"

“_I _did," Alex growled with a glowering look toward DeStorm as he and Gabbie walked around the couch to the opposite end.

“Why does Gabbie look like DeStorm now?” Liza wondered, and it _was_eerie to see Gabbie and DeStorm smirking the same way.

“This night has just gotten even _longer_,” Dawn muttered to Joey, who nodded in agreement. _‘Jesse, _why _did you have to wander off like that and get yourself killed? _Why_?’_

Gabbie was on cloud nine with her win, and she was lording it over them. “I'm _not _happy that I got sent to Final Death,” she stated, fixing them all with a stern look. “Obviously, I didn't like climbing a web in my heels, and obviously, I'm coming back a little bit tougher, a little bit more cautious, and a little bit warier. But at the end of the day, we still have to work together to figure this out." She pulled out the gem she got from Jorogumo's gem holder. "We have a gem. We are one step closer.” And with that, she put the gem into its’ slot on the gem map.

The gem map glowed red again and everyone looked around, partly uneasily, and partly wondering if they were going to get a clue or something that would lead them to the next gem.

Alex was the one to notice that there was something on the fireplace mantle that hadn’t been there moments ago. “Wait, there’s a note.”

Gabbie grabbed the note and, with DeStorm looking over her shoulder, she read it to the group. “‘Two dead and more to go. I wonder which horrid face will be next. I would start praying. After midnight, things change. The Sorceress’.”

“After midnight?” Joey repeated, frowning in confusion.

“What could she mean by that?” Dawn wondered.

"What time is it now?" DeStorm asked.

Alison provided the answer. "It's only four hours until midnight."

Suddenly, the Sorceress's maniacal laughter echoed throughout the mansion, and they all looked around uneasily, half expecting her to pop up somewhere and shout ‘Boo!’.

“Ooh, I _so _hate it when the villains laugh like that,” Dawn moaned and Joey pulled her close as the maniacal laugher continued.

To Be Continued…

*****

_I have so many, so many regrets._

_So many lies, so many broken ties._

_I wish for my old life._

_Wish I could fix my strike._

_Cause no one truly escapes the night._

_Oh, won't you help me escape the night._

_Oh baby help me escape the night._

_Escape the night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don't like it when bad guys laugh evilly like that either. And does anyone else have an urge to smack Gabbie and DeStorm for being the mean girls, or is it just me?
> 
> Ok, I'll see you all tomorrow with the next episode. Bye for now! R&R everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Now, I don't exactly have a fear of spiders, but I hate it when they just come out of nowhere, and seeing the evil spider woman in action hasn't helped in the slightest.
> 
> I will be also adding the first chapter at some point today for a second update to really get this story moving. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


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